Mitesh Patel strangled Jessica with a plastic bag after subduing her with an insulin injection, the jury heard.
Photograph: Cleveland police/PA

A pharmacist who murdered his wife in a premeditated attack so he could start a new life with his boyfriend in Australia has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.

Mitesh Patel, 37, strangled his wife, Jessica, with a plastic bag after spending five years planning her murder so he could use her frozen embryos to have a family with his lover in Sydney.

Jessica Patel, 34, had been aware for six years that her husband was in love with another man and having casual sex with men he met on the dating app Grindr.

Patel, showed no emotion as Mr Justice James Goss told him: “You are a selfish man, business-driven, wanting a very successful life and wishing to retire at 40.

“You were also wanting to commit to a life with another man on your own terms and you well knew that insurance policies would realise £2m on Jessica’s death.”

He said that a 30-year minimum term was reserved for only cases where the seriousness of the offence is “particularly severe”. He added: “This is such a case.”

In a statement, Jessica’s younger sister, Divya, described Patel’s actions as “evil, cruel and malicious”.

She said: “The one thing we hope and prayed for above anything else was that in her final moments she did not suffer. The cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer. She knew exactly who her killer was and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it.

“We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt, knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy.

“Only Mitesh himself can truly answer why he did this. Everything he has done has been purely for selfish reasons. He could have divorced her, taken everything he wanted, he did not need to take her life. He had no right to take this evil, cruel and malicious step.”

On Tuesday a jury took two hours and 50 minutes to convict Patel. During the three-week trial, a jury heard how Patel subdued his wife with an insulin injection before strangling her at their home in Linthorpe in Middlesbrough. The pharmacist had carried out online research about strangulation and the effects of insulin.

After the murder, on 14 May this year, Patel ransacked the couple’s home in an attempt to make it appear that intruders had murdered Jessica.

Patel’s deception was uncovered after police examined the iPhone health app, which tracks the user’s steps throughout the day, on his and his wife’s phones.

In the minutes that followed Jessica’s death, Patel’s phone monitored frantic activity, racing around the house as he staged the burglary and running up and down the stairs. Jessica’s health app remained still until after her death when it recorded a movement of 14 paces as her husband took the iPhone from her body and deposited it outside to make it look as though the “burglar” had dropped it as he left.

Prosecutors said Patel’s motivation had always been to escape his strict Hindu upbringing and flee to Australia to be with his lover and start a new family. He also stood to inherit a £2m life insurance policy.